London-based tech startups pitch for big bucks

A first-of-its-kind showcase brought eight companies before investors and an audience of business and community leaders. Sean Irvine reports.

Rising technology firms in our region had a chance to impress Wednesday evening.

A first-of-its-kind showcase brought eight companies before investors and an audience of business and community leaders.

The push towards AI was prominent during the ‘Polaris Pitch Competition’ hosted by London-based TechAlliance.

The concept mimics multiple entrepreneur reality TV shows featuring investors judging new businesses.

“There’s real money at stake. There are real services at stake,” stated Christina Fox, the CEO of TechAlliance. “And you never know whether or not an investor enjoys a pitch so much that they might decide to invest in that company.”

Personality, perseverance, concept viability, and ultimately the ability to make money are what investors are focused on.

“We know that 75 per cent of startups don’t make it to a full-size company,” said Fox. “So, 25 per cent of startups make it. And of these eight finalists, we believe that they’ve got traction and they’ll be the ones that people will be taking a risk on.”

But the Polaris Pitch venue was also surrounded by simply hoping to be the next ‘big thing.’

Among them, Western graduate Reagan Michiels and two friends. They created a healthy snack spread based on tech science.

“We would work long days in the lab and that would end up with us eating junk food or anything to sustain ourselves. And we realized this is an issue. And therefore, we made it our mission to make easy snacks that are healthy and affordable for everyone to eat.”

Whether a hit in the supermarket or online, each tech hopeful strives to live up to the Polaris name, which Fox said is designed to encourage them to ‘Shoot for the moon!’

“So, it is a play on words that we know is really important to the technology start-ups in Canada,” Fox said.

The two winners of the Polaris Pitch, which includes cash and business assistance over $30,000, are Cellect Laboratories, a provider of online health testing for women, and NovaSonix, another London-based healthcare startup.

While no promises were made during the event, any investor could opt to buy into either project.